Revisiting the Past
by Bad Wolf Returns
Summary: Not being able to sleep, Amy takes a walk through the TARDIS to find the Doctor watching a strange scene on the walls.


**Disclaimer:** All rights for Doctor Who and the characters go to BBC.

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It was one of those nights. She couldn't sleep… even with the comforting hum of the TARDIS peacefully drifting in space, she couldn't rest. Amy sauntered off to get a cup of tea from the kitchen, and then drifted around the TARDIS halls, not particularly searching for anything.

She had wandered so deep into the TARDIS and didn't know where she was anymore. Gripping the cup tightly, she noticed there was a door slightly ajar, not enough to see inside, but enough to see there was a light on. Curiosity peaking her interests, she slowly approached the door.

Looking inside, she saw her raggedy man sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at projections on the wall coming out of a tube. The wall showed a blonde girl lying down on the grass with an attractive man, with spiked hair and side burns and a pinstriped suit. There was a beautiful futuristic city in the background.

"Traveling with you," the girl looked at the man lovingly, "I love it."

"Me too," he smiled, grabbed her hand and said "C'mon!"

The scene automatically changed to a different man, black leather jumper and a bit older than the previous man. He looked up to see the same girl, blonde hair in a bun, dressed in an old outfit from the 1800's.

"Blimey…" he said breathlessly, "You look beautiful."

The girl smiled with her tongue between her teeth.

The scene changed once more to the same two from the beginning, this time the scene was alarming. The girl was dangling from a switch and the man in the pinstriped suit was yelling her name. Rose, it was.

She seemed to be clinging on for dear life to the switch but it was obvious her grip was loosening. She was being sucked into something on the side of the wall.

When she had no more strength and let go, a man appeared to catch her, and disintegrated with her just as quickly as he showed up.

The man in the pinstriped suit walked up to the wall and put his hand to it, silently standing in place for a few minutes. The moment he turned around his face was blank, but you could see the tears forming in his eyes.

Amy unconsciously leaned in and the door squeaked. The Doctor whipped in her direction and the scene on the wall dissolved.

"What are you doing here?" he questioned his voice raw with emotion, tears streaking down his face.

"I'm sorry I couldn't sleep… are you crying?" She asked.

"No, crying is rubbish." The Doctor said and he cleared his face from tears.

"You trying to hide things is rubbish. Now c'mon tell me why you're so sad and who were those people you were watching?" she sat down beside him, offering him some of her tea.

"If you must know Amelia Pond, those people were me, and the girl was an old friend of mine…"

"Are you saying that both the males were you?" she questioned disbelievingly.

"Yes." He sighed, noticing he'd have to go through the regeneration conversation with her. "When Time Lords are about to die, they cheat death by regenerating every cell in their body. When that happens they change appearance and sometimes their personality slightly. The daft chap in the jumper was my ninth incarnation, and the one in the pinstriped suit was my tenth." He recited.

"And the girl?"

"She was the first person who I let come with me on the TARDIS after the destruction of my planet. I was really a terrible, angry, daft idiot back then. The ears didn't help either." He laughed silently to himself. "Actually I can show you how we met."

He grabbed the metal cylinder and twisted it to the side; a new projection appeared on the wall, one of the man in the jumper in a warehouse. He was being chased by shop dummies when he ran into the blonde, Rose, and grabbed her hand and said "Hello, I'm the Doctor and basically…RUN!"

"Great first impression," Amy scoffed.

"I suppose being chased by shop dummies isn't particularly the best way to meet someone." He agreed.

"What happened to her?" She silently asked as the scene on the wall changed to one of them walking through a field, hand in hand.

"What you saw earlier, she was almost sucked into the Void, but instead her father rescued her last minute. She became stuck in a parallel universe." Instantly, as if reacting to his words, the projection showed the girl running towards him, both of them grinning at the happiness of reunion.

"Later, when the Earth was being invaded by Daleks, she found her way back to me… I had to drop her off in the other Universe with a human metacrisis of myself who had committed genocide of the Daleks." Fresh tears formed in his face as he saw his metacrisis clone kiss Rose on the beach.

"You loved her." Amy stated, not a question but a fact.  
"She's happier now…" The projection was now one of her and the pinstriped Doctor, holding a newborn in her arms, the other Doctor cooing the infant.

"That's not a memory is it?" She asked.

"No… I used the energy of a passing black hole sucking up a supernova to power the image projection to show me Rose in the other universe, I used the same idea from when I used a burning sun to send a projection of myself to say goodbye." He answered.

Amy offered a friendly arm to the Doctor, and he leaned into her hug. It was then that Amy realized her surroundings; she was in a female's room, the majority of the bedding being pink and lacy.

"You don't know what she meant to me Amy… I was such a ball of hatred and rage after the war. She showed me compassion, love, warmth. She brought me my sanity and made me human again, she stopped me from making mistakes I would regret… she made me better, just like she's doing to him now."

"And here I thought you were as celibate as a nun." She teased him.

He smiled at the joke, not offering a retort. "I should really stop doing this every time we pass by a dying star." He decided.

"Doctor, you shouldn't have to hide your feelings. Don't forget her, remember all the compassion she brought into your life and how she changed you for the better." Amy said.

"Your right…" he looked into the projection again, and Rose looked up at him, almost as if she knew he was watching her.

"I know you're there doctor…" her voiced called out to him.

"How did you know…" he stuttered.

"I can't see you, but I can feel you, like protective warmth washed down over me. I've felt it other times before as well." She confessed.

"Rose Tyler…" he mumbled, "You never cease to amaze me you incredible woman."

"Oi!" another voiced called, the other Doctor starting in the same direction as Rose. "Watch it now Martian Boy, you better not be flirting with a married woman."

"You married her… wait does that mean Jackie Tyler is your mother in law?!" He realized with a start.

The pinstriped doctor laughed, "Unfortunately yes, remember that time she laid one on us?"

The Doctor rubbed his chin, "All too well…and that was two incarnations ago." The ghost slap haunting him even now.

Rose's voice drifted back up, "Before the connection is broken, which I'm assuming will be soon, I want to tell you thank you. I know why you had to leave me on that beach, but I want you to know that you should be happy…stop wallowing in the regret, which I know all too well you do, and know that you have a life here in this alternate universe with such happiness and filled with family."

"It's true," the other Doctor cut in, "I have never been happier in my nine hundred years, and I hope you've found others over there to keep you company."

"I have, but if you don't mind, I want to finally get something off my chest." He looked at Rose. "Rose Tyler, I…" and the connection died.

He bit back a sarcastic laugh as a tear went down his face.

"Are you ok?" Amy looked at him.

"Yes, I think I will be." He smiled at her, thinking of the scene of his other self and Rose with the infant.


End file.
